This is a test…of my patience. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, what you would call techno-literate. I am lucky I can turn my laptop on, to be honest. I have my strengths. I love photography, so I have tackled learning how to use a digital camera and the monkeyshines that involves uploading pictures and then being able to manipulate them to fix my mistakes. (I am a GOD, with the ability to increase or decrease my contrast at WILL!) However, the problem with my skill set is that it takes me an incredibly long time to master these leaps in technology. (I still use white-out on occasion, if that gives you an idea.) No sooner have I mastered the functions of Picasa than Google upgrades its system and now all my billions of photos are held hostage on my downstairs tower-shaped computer and I have yet to figure out how to get them onto the cloud…or whatever the magic method of transition is. I suspect I will need an intervention.

So, if I am so antiquated that paper is my preferred medium, why am I entering the blogosphere you might ask? That would be an excellent question, in search of a good answer…

Hang on…give me a minute…

Uh, nope, I’m drawing a blank.

Where was I? Oh yes, blogging and why people do it. I have decided that a majority of people must be masochists or exhibitionists…or somewhere on that spectrum. Or, they have a deep-seated desire to shout in the wilderness…which is what I suspect my posts will be doing. Standing somewhere on a fault line, shrieking like a banshee, and listening to the wind whistle past. But at least I will be publishing which is the point. I think.

I have been writing, to amuse myself mostly and to keep me humble. The title of this blog (which is subject to change depending on my ability to figure out how to do it) is The Dust Season–which refers to the Trilogy I am writing by that series name. From all accounts, a writer actually needs to have a pool of readers at hand, so to speak, before he or she can even think of approaching a publisher. (Which is why I am a Luddite. I thought it was the publisher’s job to get the book to the people…but, there it is.) So here I am, hat in hand, standing on the edge of the desert trying to figure out what the hell a widget is.

If anyone happens to hear my cry in the dark, feel free to point me in the right direction…preferably one with books printed on paper and a nice cup of tea at the end of the story.

P.S.  If I manage to attach a picture…it will not be of the desert as one might expect.  I live in the Midwest.  All I have are photos of flowers and the desire to move somewhere warm during the 6-months of winter.

P.P.S. Blogging Virgin here…please be gentle.